Autopsy: Elderly crash victim died of heart disease

Jan. 17, 2014
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Lorraine McKaig, 88, died Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014, hours after police diverted her from her daily drive to a Livonia, Mich., restaurant and after she apparently crashed her car. / Provided to The Detroit Free Press

by Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press

by Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press

DETROIT -- An elderly woman found outside her car on Detroit's east side this week after a traffic detour and crash died of heart disease, according to the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.

Despite the unusual circumstances and questions surrounding her final hours, Lorraine McKaig's death was a result of natural causes, Mary Mazur, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, said Friday.

Mazur noted that circumstances could have exacerbated McKaig's physical condition.

McKaig, 88, was detoured from her daily trip to a Livonia, Mich., restaurant because of an industrial fire Wednesday afternoon and discovered outside her car at Coleman A. Young International Airport more than eight hours later, authorities said. Her car had crashed through a fence and she was found on the ground.

McKaig died later at St. John Hospital and Medical Center.

McKaig's daughter, Sue Modzelewski, 61, of Bloomfield Hills said her mother was making her regular drive to Daly Restaurant in Livonia Wednesday but was unable to complete the trip. Police told the family that McKaig was ticketed for trying to get around a traffic barrier near the scene of the fire.

"She got to the area where the fire was taking place and was diverted by the Livonia police because she was trying to get through the barricade to get to the restaurant and they turned her around in the wrong direction," Modzelewski said.

McKaig was reported missing after she failed to return home by about 4 p.m., prompting family members and friends to begin a search of the area.

About 10 p.m., airport security notified Detroit police that a car had hit a fence near the intersection of Conner and Outer Drive. The car was found but not the driver, and Detroit Police and Michigan State Police, along with a police dog, searched the area until McKaig was found alive a short time later, lying on the ground in front of a fire station, according to Detroit Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Woody.

There was some minor front-end damage to the black Ford Thunderbird, which was locked, with McKaig's purse and keys inside, Modzelewski said, describing her mother as a tiny, fragile woman of 89 pounds.

McKaig could be forgetful and only drove in Livonia - to the restaurant, to her bank and to church, Modzelewski said, noting limitations to her driving abilities.

"It's very disappointing that the police didn't make sure she got home OK," Modzelewski said. "We're just trying to handle things, to figure it all out. We're just upset that she's gone and the manner that she left us."

Kathleen Donovan, a manager who has worked at Daly Restaurant for 38 years, said McKaig ate at the restaurant every day, mostly in the afternoons, sometimes by herself and sometimes with family. She always ordered the same thing - grilled chicken, an order of fries and a small Coke.

She was "very well liked by everybody. She was a nice lady."

"It was a shock to me. I'm still really upset about it," Donovan said of McKaig's untimely death.